On
what was to be just another Monday morning at school, Luke’s girlfriend Jessica
is nowhere to be found. Names like ‘psycho lover’ follow Luke to his
locker, even from his best friend. Luke soon learns Jessica tried to kill
herself at a party from the previous Saturday night, and she’s
blaming him. With posts on FaceBook feeding the rumors of what happened that
night, the school has to investigate.

Torn
between worry, guilt, loyalty, priorities, and an urgency to clear his name and
protect hers, he has to find her—he loves her no matter what. The teacher in
the middle of the investigation is also the same one to provide academic and
character references for Luke’s college applications due by the end of the
week. Luke knows he’s not to blame, but with no contact from Jessica and
everyone blaming him for what happened, he’s at risk of losing
everything—Jessica and his dreams of being a mechanic—all because of what
happened that night.

“Hey,
man.” I nodded to Jeremy Waters as I started the long trek up the front lawn of
the school. He nodded back but gave me a questioning stare as I walked past.
Again, weird. What is with everyone today? I wondered.

I scanned
the busy school grounds. Where was Jessica? I knew our
break-up was inevitable, but I dreaded it. I still cared about her very much,
but things were changing: me, her, and ‘us’––and I didn’t know what to do about
it. Neither did she.

At first I didn’t
notice anything off, but as I passed group after group of unusually
silent guys and girls from all grades, I got that weird feeling, like I was
being watched, like the whole school was focused on me or something.

Some of the
guys pulled their buds out of their ears as I approached, their banter from
moments before silencing as I passed. One guy shook his head as if in disgust.
Another guy awkwardly picked at something on the ground with the toe of his
shoe, as if he were avoiding something.

I kept going,
trying to walk as normally as I could. Hard to do when you know you’re being
watched.

Where was
Jess? I checked my phone to see if there was anything from her: nothing.

I shifted my
backpack and made my way up the path to the front steps of the school. With
every footstep, uncertainty and foreboding gnawed at my gut.

A group of
girls from Jessica’s drama club huddled on the front steps like a bunch of
hens. They all gave me the once-over. One of them was crying and another gave
me the finger.

That stopped
me in my tracks. “What the hell?” I stared them down. “What was that for?”

“Screw you,
Luke!” The one with the ornery finger spat. “Stay away from Jessica!”

What
the...? Whatever.
Bunch of gossips––they seriously need to get a life.

Jessica and
I had been drifting apart for a while. Where she was involved in her drama
club, her social life, I preferred being under the hood of a car,
alone. But it wasn’t that I chose cars over her or anything. I cared about her
very, very much. At one time I even contemplated the L-word thing with her. But
lately, something had changed, and I couldn’t figure out what. I mean, I knew I
wanted to be with her but it was like we were drifting towards each other, then
away, then back towards each other again. Only to then again drift further
away.

But I would
never do anything to her, to earn me the middle finger from her friends. So why
were they acting like that? What the...? I shook my head and kept going. I
hadn’t done anything to provoke their reaction, so they could just go back to
their pointless chatter about hair or whatever.

With fifteen
minutes to go until the first bell, I wanted to catch up with Jess before
classes started. She lived way on the other side of town, and as much I would
have loved to pick her up every morning, her mom insisted on driving her. Her
mom liked me, so it wasn’t anything against me personally, but Jessica said it
was a ‘mom and daughter thing.’ And besides, we always met first thing at
school and I would, at least, get to drive her home.

But that
day, even though I wasn’t exactly about to have ‘the talk’ with her right
before class, I wanted to at least see her that morning to start the day––it
was our ‘thing.’ A pang of regret fluttered in my gut. If we broke up, would we
still meet in the mornings? She had become part of my day and I still wanted
that.

I made my
way through the doors of the school. The halls were already swarming with East
Clark High’s student body. I searched for Jessica as I pushed and wove my way
through the crowd. But I soon realized I wasn’t pushing past anyone, anymore.
The constant buzz in the halls had all but died down, and people were stepping
aside giving me a wide berth as I went.

What the
hell was wrong with everyone? I frowned at everyone practically plastered up against
the lockers, avoiding me like I was contagious or something. Did I smell like
dog sh––

“Psycho!” A
familiar voice hissed in my ear, cutting off my thoughts. Great––Mark.
I stuttered to a stop but tried to keep going. I, along with everyone else, was
used to his stupid ways, but I had to find Jessica. I didn’t want to waste time
getting into it with him right then.

But he came
at me again with, “Psycho-lover!” and that definitely had me coming to a full
stop. I swear I felt spit on my cheek.

I refused to
swipe it away, giving him the satisfaction of … I didn’t know what. Something.
I glanced up to find his buddies chuckling while Mark, the idiot himself,
contorted his face into what he assumed was the look of a crazy person.

He didn’t
have to try very hard. It came naturally.

And I hoped
his eyes stayed crossed like that.

I stared him
down, and just when I turned away he was up against me, his face so close to
mine his eyes looked crossed. “Jessica almost knocked herself off the other
night. Whadidja do? Screw her over?” he hissed.

I stared at
him in confusion. My face numbed. My neck heated. What was he talking about?
What did he mean, ‘knock herself off’?

About the Author:

Lisa McManus has been an avid reader since her teen
years, and is inspired daily by her teenage boys and the forests and beaches of
Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she lives. Along with writing for kids
and teens, she is also multi-published with Chicken Soup for the Soul and
numerous other magazines and anthologies.When she’s not writing, reading or refereeing her family, she is either
hiking or out on the archery range.

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